A Big Security Fix and Performance Manual: The Essential Guide to Computer Security & Performance

By Wayne Hoss

Your hard drives are being shares! Most people do not know it! Microsoft made it to where you can temporarily stop sharing for a few minutes but when you reboot your computer the shares return, they even made it to where you CAN NOT Disable one of the shares, that one is a "REMOTE SHARE" scary isn't it? Not only that but every file and folder that you open is being recorder in your computers registry. Don't believe me? Download ” ShellBag AnalyZer & Cleaner” by Goversoft and then run it, when this program reveals all of the things Microsoft logs about you I can almost guarantee you will be upset. When you look at the screen you will see that it logs files that you have opened, not just recently, but even going months back, it also shows when you changed settings, and it shows way more than that.
Please be careful if you run the “Cleaner” part of the application that this software comes with and pay close attention, only do what the software tells you to do. I have never had any problems, but after the cleaner is finished running a pop-up message warns you to log off or reboot your computer before doing anything else. Make sure that you do exactly as asked.
This book shows you how to disable those hard drive shares and a lot more than that

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wayne Hoss
• Release date: Dec 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370910977

Wayne Hoss

I like to write, that is probably why I have four books published so far. I wrote my first book at 15 years old and my aunt and uncle liked it so much that they offered to give me their brand new corvette for the rights to the book. I hope that my writing still inspires them, and others as well.

Book preview

A Big Security Fix and Performance Manual

The Essential Guide to Computer Security & Performance

By: Wayne Hoss

A Big Security Fix and Performance Manual

The Essential Guide to Computer Security & Performance

By: Wayne Hoss

Copyright © 2017 by Wayne Hoss All rights reserved.

No part of this book or any portion thereof may be used in any manner or reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review which would be appreciated.

First Edition: July 2017 Printed in the United States of America

DISCLAIMER

Understandably, this book is written based on Windows 7 Ultimate edition, even though the author did incorporate the information on how to acheive the same goals with other operating systems and did his best to make the examples as easy as possible, your version of Windows may be different, it therefore does not cover other versions as accurately, the user must therefore read up on any other operating system such as Windows 10 to acheive the examples given in this book, however it is more likely to be more complete and accurate for Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate. It also cannot be expected to accurately cover the differences of other versions of Windows and may require some research on the readers part.

While most of the information from my own experience has been verified on my version of Windows, obviously I cannot be responsible for the applicability to other Versions of Windows or other Operating Systems. Even though I am A CompTia A+ Certified Professinal, and graduated head of my class at a Microsoft Certified College in a Microsoft Certified MCSA course I am not associated with Microsoft, and have no means for verifying configurations of other versions of Windows. Therefore, the reader should take advice accordingly and determine for themself if it applies to their Operating System and will serve their purposes.

It should also be understood that a reader performing even minor adjustments as defined in this book should verify the information according the their own Operating System. If there is any doubt whether or not the item in question is covered in their particular Operating System and/or version of Windows, the reader is advised to read the documents and/or help information that came with their version of Windows. If the reader is told by the examples in this book to change a setting or configuration, it is understood that the reader does so at their own risk and the author shall not be held liable. Therefore the reader should check their own version of Windows to make sure that the settings are alike and then the reader can make their own informed decision how to proceed.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Your Computer may be at risk!

Chapter Two: Performance and Security

Chapter Three: Services and Applications

Chapter Four: Secure and Optimize Service Settings

Chapter Five: Local Security Policy

Chapter Six: Local Security policy Continued

Chapter Seven: Group Policy

Chapter Eight: Computer Repair

Chapter Nine: Conquering A.D.H.D

Chapter One

Your Computer May Be at Risk!

Your computer is more than likely open to attacks in several ways and you do not even know it! Windows leaves several services and configurations running in the background that leaves you vulnerable and open to attacks from hackers and identity thieves. These services and configurations severely drain most of your resources such as your Internet speed; System Memory, CPU, and they even use a large amount of your hard drive space for things that are not really necessary for the average user.

Some of these settings are for instance Remote Registry, Computer Browser, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), Anonymous Users, Remote Location Awareness, Windows Remote Management Service, Windows Time (which by the way is not your clock) and even these two huge risks, Secondary Logon and Remote Desktop, which allows another user to log on to your computer even while you are still on it, and what’s more, you can not see them so you have no idea that they are there!

For instance, Anonymous Users are permitted in your computer through various Windows settings and you probably did not know that either. Of even greater concern is the fact that most, if not all, of your hard drives are being shared without your knowledge, and even worse, remote settings are sometimes running in the background leaving your computer vulnerable to attack. These are settings and configurations that only certain people know about such as a Network Administrator.

However if you are a home user and not a company that is big enough to have several computers connected together (known as a network) then you have no need for these services and configurations, and you of course have not hired a Network Administrator such as myself, so why are these potentially dangerous security risks open and running on your personal computer? Why are they running without your knowledge?

What is going on here is a very huge problem, one that is being caused, in my opinion, by the very company that we have come to trust and allow in our lives without giving it a second thought. Do you really want to know the truth about what is going on behind your back as you are surfing the Internet?

Lucky for you that I have written this book which reveals even more than most of your certified computer repair technicians, or average computer geeks .know. In fact I have not met any Network Administrators that are aware of all the things that I reveal to you in this book!

I have shown these settings to people that were pretty good at working on computers, and even shown them to certified technicians only to have them exclaim Oh my God, I never knew these existed…. how in the world did you know this?

Even though I graduated from one of Microsoft’s Colleges the top of my class in a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (M.C.S.A) Course, not to mention that I am also CompTia Certified as an A+ Certified Professional in Computer Software and Hardware Repair, I did not learn most of these settings at that college, I learned most of them on my own over the forty plus years that I have been into computer repair and network administration..

Due to all of this hacking and ransomware going around that has even locked hospitals out of their own computers, denying them access to patients records and critical information that could be the difference between life and death, I decided that enough is enough.

Please do not get me wrong, Microsoft has a very good reason for these settings and configurations being incorporated into their software, but that is no excuse for them to leave these settings and configurations open and running in the background, putting the entire world at risk. There are some companies and businesses that do use these settings and configurations, but most of them can afford to hire a Certified Network Administrator to configure these settings for them and keep their network safe.

Since these companies hire Network Administrators anyway, why not leave these settings disabled by default, since the average user does not need them, not to mention that they do not have an expensive Network Administrator to set everything up for them to protect their computers.

If they were to leave these security risks disabled by default, since anyone that really does need to use them either knows how to set them up, or hires a Network Administrator that does know how to enable and configure these settings, then a lot of this hacking and even a lot of the viruses and ransomware attacking our society at an unbelievable pace could be prevented, or at the very least be slowed down.

Well my friends, since you can’t afford to hire an expensive Network Administrator, and since this is affecting millions of people around the world who have had their identity stolen, and their computers affected by viruses and ransomware, not to mention that some people have even had hackers steal their identity and then file for that poor unsuspecting souls income taxes, I have decided to write this book for you to keep by your side at all times as your own portable Network Administrator, but this book is way more than that.

Another reason that I decided to write this book is because all of my friends, customers, and even the instructors at the Microsoft Certified College that I attended continually brag about how good that I am, brag about several of the tricks that I have learned over the years to fix computers, and according to all of them I am one of the best…. we will leave that for you to decide.

I decided to put all of those hints, tips, and tricks of mine that nobody else knows how to do in this one of a kind book, so that someday when I am gone all of that knowledge will not be lost. These are tricks that I have learned in my forty plus years of experience as a Web Master, CompTia A+ Certified Professional, Network Administrator, and so much more!

What should excite you even more is the fact that I am walking you through these settings and configurations in a simple step-by-step tutorial that will help you absorb in minutes what took me years to learn. These are very important tips that you probably will not find anywhere else. For instance, I have fixed several computers that my customers were about to throw away with a common household hair dryer.

I have several customers that I met who were referred to me after they paid two or three other people to work on their computers, but those people were all unsuccessful, yet I succeeded every time.

I am going to tell you another one of my most important tricks that I have used to fix computers also, these were computers that people gave up on and were ready to throw away, and this trick has saved my customers, as well as myself, a lot of time and money, so if you have ever thrown a computer away or replaced a motherboard, be sure to read the computer repair section near the end of this book.

Remote Desktop is more than likely enabled and running on your computer, which allows someone else from a remote location like the Internet to see your desktop exactly as you yourself see it, they can be doing things on your computer just as if sitting right beside you, but you will not even know that they are there. They can read all of your files, copy that data which you have tried so desperately to protect, and even delete your files and applications without your knowledge, or even worse, they could inject a virus or Trojan into your system.

You may have one that I consider a risk running in your computer now such as Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper which Creates a Network Map consisting of every computer and device attached to your computer, it is like handing them a map saying Here is my computer, come on in!

Secondary Logon is probably enabled on your system and it is a definite risk! I always disable it and there is another service that I disable which I cover in this book, and this service creates shares for all of your hard drives and many other things. Everyone that I have shown this setting to became understandably upset that their hard drives were being shared without their knowledge, they literally had no idea that their hard drives were being shared. See more about all of these settings further in this book.

Other services that are risky in my opinion are Media Center Extender Service which Allows Media Center Extenders to locate and connect to your computer, and they can do so without your knowledge. Another is Routing and Remote Access, Net Pipe Listener Adapter, Network List Service, Network Connections, Remote Auto-Access Connection Manager, and many more!

I am going to show you how to disable these resource hogs that are also in my opinion big security risks, as we work our way through this Security and Performance how-to guide. I will tell you about some of the biggest resource hogs that are probably running in your computer right now and using up valuable resources, slowing your computer down.

As a matter of fact, about a year ago I had a customer that asked me to check his laptop because he installed a new game that he wanted to play real bad, but after the game installed it would not play. He thought that he needed to go out and buy a new memory chip to give his laptop enough memory to play the game. When he clicked on the icon to start the game it would slowly begin to load the game and then freeze up.

He was astonished when I showed him all of the services and settings (which you too will learn from this book) that were running in the background using up so much of his resources that the game could not play, and these are services and configurations that he did not even use.

I told him that I personally never use any of the settings that I showed him and will be showing you in this book, and my Internet and computer are faster, and much more responsive. After disabling just a few of the settings that you will see in this book, the game not only played, but it played at full speed, no hangs, no glitches, not a single problem.

That gives you an idea of how much stuff is running in the background needlessly hogging up most of your resources, and making not only your computer slow, but your Internet as well. I will walk you through that entire process in this book, to help you get more performance out of your computer and Internet.

These security risks are of utmost importance, especially with all of the viruses out there these days, but of even more concern is the attacks on home computers, big and small business computers, as well as the attacks in the last few months referred to as a ransomware virus which has been viciously locking people out of their own computers and making the data inaccessible to the owners of the computer and their employees and/or users that need access to these computers to maintain and control all aspects of their business, and daily life.

What really disgusts me the most is the fact that these criminals are so heartless and evil that they have been attacking and locking hospitals out of their computers which contain vital information about the patients that they are attending to, and this is critical information that can be the difference between life and death! The hackers promising to unlock the computers/servers only if paid a large ransom.

These wicked, selfish, and greedy hackers are risking the lives of sick and innocent people for the sake of the all mighty dollar, and locking doctors, as well as nurses, out of the medical records of their patients which they need access to for such critical information such as the patients blood type. We all know how deadly it can be to receive the wrong blood type.

That is another reason that this book is important right now, it is a must have, to keep with you always as a guide to changing the ways in which we leave our systems wide open for such attacks, and what I will show you here in this section of the book is just a small portion of all the security risks that we will cover in this book that are leaving you vulnerable to identity theft.

Where does it end? It can end here…. right now! Sure the easy to follow instructions in this book have pictures to walk you through these settings and make it easy for you to lock down your computers, but make no mistake about it, we have a long way to go if we are to live in this modern age of technology with high-speed Internet access that allows us to watch a streaming video on demand, or text and chat with our friends and family on social media sites.

It does not have end, we should not have to give all of this up to live a happy and most importantly a secure life! It can and should be a quick and wise solution that begins with a change in the software that we use every day, software that we have become very comfortable with, but unbeknownst to us leaves us wide open to such vicious attacks.

The companies that use the critical network settings that I have been telling you about in this book have the money